“Another Year”

Nothing really happens in Mike Leigh’s latest — nothing extraordinary, at least. As the title suggests, the film follows the usual comings and goings, ups and downs that transpire over four seasons among a longtime happily married couple, their family and friends. And yet everything is fully realized and superbly crafted; the sense of intimacy Leigh creates as writer and director is never broken, for better and for worse. “Another Year” feels as organic and authentic as the vegetables its lead characters, husband and wife Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), grow in a community garden. It reveals the players’ connections effortlessly, and with the naturalistic dialogue that is among the filmmaker’s trademarks. But it can also be unrelentingly bleak, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one who’s a fan of Leigh’s work. Still, the character at the center of “Another Year,” Lesley Manville’s Mary, is a high-energy bundle of neediness and desire, constantly striving to connect, desperate for human contact. Manville, one of many Leigh regulars in the cast, plays her as well-intentioned but self-conscious, ingratiating but jittery, sweet but passive-aggressive and clearly so, so lonely. It’s an annoying character, but Manville is so good, she makes you feel sorry for her. PG-13 for some language. 129 minutes. Three stars out of four.

— Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

“Biutiful”

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has always driven headlong into gritty depictions of pain and tragedy. With hand-held camera and a brooding artist’s mandate, he revels in peering into the depths and brandishing his seriousness. Following the visceral triptychs “Amores Perros,” ’’21 Grams” and “Babel,” Inarritu, for the first time, tells the story linearly. He is trained on one character: Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a kind of black-market middle man in Barcelona. He’s fatally ill, a predicament made all the more awkward because of his two young children, Ana (Hanaa Bouchaib) and Mateo (Guillermo Estrella). Their mother, Uxbal’s ex-wife (Maricel Alvarez), is manic-depressive and untrustworthy. Much of “Biutiful” is Uxbal badly attempting to ready himself and those around him for his exit. Bardem, with a mane of hair and a heavy weariness, carries the otherwise contrived film entirely. A film about death is in itself a worthy undertaking, but Inarritu tries to juggle fatherhood, divorce, business ethics and ghosts. It’s mountains to heap on an actor, and remarkable that Bardem manages it so beautifully. R for disturbing images, language, some sexual content, nudity and drug use. 148 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

— Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer

“Blue Valentine”

Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling’s marital drama is agonizing to watch yet relentlessly compelling, even illuminating, playing almost like a sober documentary rather than a narrative film. Though fictional, it is a document of sorts, a chronicle of a crumbling marriage that often feels as honest and painful as if it were a nonfiction film about real people putting each other through absolute hell. Williams and Gosling play a couple spending a night away from their young daughter in hopes of renewing their faded romantic spark. Director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance intersperses the marital scenes with lovingly nostalgic flashbacks to the start of their romance six years earlier. Williams and Gosling’s performances range from sublimely sweet in the flashbacks to raw, ferocious and punishing in the present day. The result is a beautifully idiosyncratic portrait of a relationship that starts with the brightest of hopes and inevitably falters as the years and mileage accumulate. R for strong sexual content, language and a beating. 112 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.